Pages

Total Pageviews

Thursday, April 20, 2017

In a 3-2 split verdict that had two dissenting notes, Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday April 20,2017 ordered further probe into the Panama Papers case against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The court has ordered the setting up of a joint investigation team in seven days which has to submit its final report in two months.

The court also ordered Sharif and his two sons — Hasan and Hussain — to appear before the JIT, which would consist of officials from the Federal Investigation Agency, the National Accountability Bureau, the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and the Military Intelligence (MI). The JIT will present its report before the bench after every two weeks.

The case was launched on November 3 and the court held 35 hearings before concluding the proceedings on February 23. The case is about alleged money laundering by Sharif in 1990s when he twice served as Prime Minister to purchase assets in London.

The assets surfaced when Panama papers last year showed that they were managed through offshore companies owned by Sharif's children.

The case in the Supreme Court was based on several identical petitions by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan and others about alleged illegal assets of the Prime Minister Sharif's family in London.

According to the judgment, Sharif, 67, survived as majority three judges supported the setting up of JIT to further probe the allegations while two other judges wanted to disqualify the Prime Minister.

The court also ordered that it was important to probe how money was transferred to Qatar.

The five bench also criticised the NAB Chairman who failed to carry out his duty. It said that he was unwilling to perform his duties.

"We have been vindicated as Prime Minister had last year asked to set up a probe commission to investigate Panama leaks scandal," said Khawaja Asif, defence minister and close ally of Prime Minister Sharif.